To those who don’t run, calling the act of running “fun” can seem absurd. Even for those who do understand, it’s not easy to define or explain. In the most basic sense, it’s just fun to move playfully through the world—running wherever you are—with just a pair of shoes and your body. You feel capable. Free. 　　And that fun extends...

　　In March 2023, on a trail run in the mountains near Tucson, Arizona, I caught my toe on a rock. I was descending a steep and technical section of trail a little more quickly than I’d normally go. I had a plane to catch. I’m not sure how long I was airborne—maybe a second or so—but it felt like a...

　　Before I became a yoga teacher, I sat at a desk for eight hours a day, five days a week, and commuted an hour each way. I thought I was taking care of myself by practicing yoga after work, but all that sitting still created tremendous pain in my lower back. I tried taking breaks and standing up every hour...

　　After a rollercoaster-like opening three episodes, Alone Africa has finally slowed down. 　　In the fourth episode, which aired last Thursday, nobody caught a debilitating gastrointestinal illness or fired arrows into a fuzzy ungulate. Nobody called for a rescue, and nobody went home. 　　And with the six remaining survivalists looking confident and secure, we, the audience, finally got an opportunity to...

　　The most famous joke in music involves a lost tourist in Manhattan who asks a passing musician how to get to Carnegie Hall. The reply: “Practice, practice, practice.” This quip popped to mind when I was reading a new study about the caloric requirements of 100-mile mountain ultramarathons. You’ll burn something like 16,000 calories during one of these races, which...

　　Im not crying, youre crying. 　　OK—so were probably both misty-eyed. But how could you watch Alone Africas fifth episode and not tear up while watching the shows lovable and grandfatherly contestant battle his inner demons? 　　Spoilers ahead. Of course, Im referencing Douglas, the 57-year-old from North Carolina with the Santa Claus beard and folksy twang. On episode five, we spent ample...

　　Not a day goes by that we don’t hear about an aspect of human ability made redundant by the powers of artificial intelligence. Let’s face it: AI is on the march. And when it comes to action sports, it’s already arrived. Earlier this year, an artificially intelligent robot—nicknamed “The Owl”—judged practice events at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado....

　　I dont believe in ghosts, but the campsite where we stood felt heavy with loss. I glanced between the trees, the branches swayed, and a breeze whispered across my cheek. I had come to this remote island by boat with Jerry Schmanda, who had been a member of a search party 28 years before. He stamped a steel-toe rubber boot...

　　It’s ultrarunning season, and people around the world are stepping out to do the impossible. Fifty miles feels like a lot, but hey why not double it? These mammoths of mileage have unlocked a new level of human potential, but as heroic as their achievements may be, there is still so much mystery when it comes to going the distance....

　　If I had a chance to be magically transported back to the American frontier in the 1880s, I’d leap enthusiastically into the back of the covered wagon. At least for a temporary stretch, I’d welcome life in simpler times. There are aspects of our modern day, especially as a parent, that I wonder would be improved by going back in...

　　To be a sports fan in the modern era is to be at least somewhat numb to the steady drip of doping positives. Occasionally, though, a bust is so big that it changes the trajectory of the sport. Ben Johnson’s positive test in 1988 almost crushed track and field for a decade. The BALCO scandal, which in the early 2000s...

　　I ran my first marathon in a basketball jersey. Not just any basketball jersey, a vintage Chris Webber Golden State Warriors number, bright blue and straight from the mid-nineties. As racers lined up at the starting line of the Sunflower Marathon in Mazama, Washington, I looked out of place next to technical T-shirts and space-age microfibers. But in many ways,...